Is their any way for non-commercial consumers to get this engine free and legally?

jt, Epic will update engine constantly, AFAIK without any dates (like once a month for UDK). UE4 in active development stage, so expect many updates.
The whole paradigm shifted (closed source free UDK to full source UE4 subscription), so you will get all stuff now not after big licensees but at the same time.

CloDevious, use offline mode, Luke.